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According to a new survey among Carinthians and None-Carinthians the image of Austrias southern federal state Carinthia is badly damaged. Carinthians know about their loss of image and do not try to suppress it.

There are enough reasons to explain this sad result. There was the Hypo bank scandal. The political quarrels and the secession of the ruling Orange party BZÖ to a new party called FPK. And also the horrible debt repayment status of Carinthia and the permanent mismanagement is no reason to be proud of.

20 years ago Carinthia was Austrias most popular province. The deterioration of Austrias former paradise in the south is alerting.

2 Kommentare zu “Carinthias image badly damaged”

I am an American and have traveled to Carinthia every year since 1992. Carinthia has always been a special place for me. I have many friends there and in the past I have always felt welcome. Unfortunately times have changed for the worse.
I have been stopped by the Police in Carinthia 3 times in the last two years because I do not “look Austrian”. I was told this by the police. Never before has this happened to me in the first 15 years of traveling to Carinthia. I spend much money in Carinthia, have friends there , and my father was a military police officer in Austria during WW2. There is no reason I should be treated like a criminal and humiliated in front of other people because I do not have blond hair and blue eyes.

Furthermore, much of the population of Carinthia seem to be leaning towards the far-right (more than ever). Carinthia’s longstanding fight against immigration has turned more and more ugly along with their politics. I can no longer go to places in Carinthia without being dragged into a political argument about some radical point of view which often includes the opinion that America is worse than the Third Reich. The disturbing thing about this is that it is not just the older generation who have extreme far-right opinions (this could be understood to a point). It is the young people who seem to have been radicalized and motivated by such political demagogues like Strache and his racist political party. These are very troublesome developments.

Whoever reads this may think I may be overreacting, or perhaps wrong in my analysis. I can only say I wish i was wrong. I have had hundreds of political discussions in Carinthia and have spent over three years of my life there. I love Carinthia and there is no other person more disappointed than me about how this beautiful place is changing into something unrecognizable.

Robert L., you should come and visit Vienna once. Then you might understand why the people in Carinthia start acting like this. Some of them are just scared, that they end up like people in Vienna. There has never been so much crime in Vienna like now and most of the criminals are from foreign countries (especially Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, …). It must be horrible for you to see how people change in Carinthia but it is way worse for the people who live here to see how Austria changes. They may seem rude but they are just careful.

I am a young woman living in Vienna and I’m honestly scared of going out of my flat at night. It really became dangerous here and there’s nothing we can do about that except beeing careful like people in Carinthia.

I hope you understand Carithia’s behaviour more now that I told you this.
Carinthia doesn’t change because we want to change it. We have to change it!